Trauma

As many of you know, last Friday night, we experienced a bit of a traumatic event in our family. I got off work early and we were so excited to be able to spend a relaxing late afternoon and evening together as a family. We had been to Kohl's to buy some pillows for our bed and then we decided to head to the mall to purchase some new phones that Dave had been wanting for a LONG time. Little did we know that things wouldn't go quite as planned.

It was about 5:30 and Belle and I were both hungry so we decided to get some dinner in the food court before going to purchase our phones. We got Chic-Fil-A (of course, because who doesn't choose Chic-Fil-A when they eat at the mall?). Belle lasted in her high chair for only a few short minutes, so I put her in the chair next to me. As there was no booster seat, she wasn't tall enough to eat at the table, so she stood on the chair to eat. While she was sipping her drink, she was turning back and forth between our table and the planter box behind us. And then it happened . . . her adorable little flip-flop got caught in one of the slats of the chair causing her to trip and she fell face first into the corner of the table next to us. I tried to catch her, but could not.

As I leaned over to pick our poor girl up (which I have done countless times with countless falls), I noticed that this fall was not the same as others. There was blood on the floor beneath her. I sat her on my lap with her back to me, so I couldn't quite see her face. I saw that blood was coming from her cheek, so I immediately grabbed some napkins to put on the wound. I then saw Dave's panicked face as he looked at her. I was trying to stay calm and wanted to try and clean the blood up before panicking too much. I looked down at her cheek and saw tons of blood gushing out of a gaping, fleshy wound in her cheek. I then started to panic a bit as well. We gathered all our things, left all our food on the table, grabbed a bunch more napkins and rushed out of that food court (we may or may not have pushed a few people along the way).

I sat in the back of the car while holding Belle and keeping napkins pressured on her cheek. Dave was weaving in and out of traffic and speeding through the city (while scaring me to death). And poor, poor little Belle was just crying and saying "Cheek, cheek, cheek." She was breaking my sad little heart as she cried and bled in my lap. She tried pushing my hand away from her cheek and as I took that napkin off for a brief second, I got a clearer look at the gaping cut. It was worse than I thought. It looked as if she had lost a chunk of flesh and I worried about her poor little face. I said out loud, "Oh, shoot." And cute little Belle between her cries, said, "Oh, shoot." I smiled just a bit. Of course our beautiful Belle could make such a crummy situation funny and cute.

While speeding to the ER, Dave managed to call his dad to meet us there so he could help give Belle a blessing. After pulling up to the ER doors, we rushed in with Belle in my arms and they immediately got us into a Triage room. A tech and a nurse took Belle's vitals and got a bandage for her cut. We were soon taken back to an ER room where Mark and Cheri soon met up with us. Dave and his dad gave Belle a blessing. With Ganma and Papa there to help distract her, Belle soon started to calm down and nearly forgot about her cheek. Soon they had to leave, and we waited a little longer for the doctor. He came in and looked at her cheek and said that it was actually a pretty clean cut and that he would be able to do the stitches rather than waiting for a plastic surgeon.

Belle on "Ganma's" lap while waiting for the Dr. to come in.

We kept her distracted with a rubber glove.

Since she is so young, they decided to sedate her so she would remain still while they did the stitches. They gave her a shot (of something) for the sedation. And within about a minute, she was pretty much out. It was actually really sad and unnerving to watch. Her eyes stayed open, but they were glazed over, and she was totally limp. The sedative lasts about 10 minutes, so the doctor started right away on the stitches. He finished the first layer (under the skin) and then started on the second layer. While working on the second layer, the sedative started to wear off. I was getting a little nervous, but he was able to finish before she came all the way out of it.

After the stitches were in and she started to come out of her sedation.

Note the blood all over her dress. There was blood everywhere. :(

We stayed at the hospital for about another 45 min. to make sure that she came out of everything okay and had good vitals. She was sooooo loopy coming out of it. She kept flopping around like crazy and was saying the craziest things. It was kind of funny. The first thing she said was, "wooooe, wooooe, dang (or Dave - I couldn't tell which)." Then she just kept repeating it, "wooooe, woooe, wooooe..." It was quite funny. I so wish I would have gotten it on camera. And ever since, she has been singing this little ditty - "Woe, woe, dang. Woe, woe, dang." Kind of hilarious. I have no idea where she got that from.

The doctor did say that the sedative they used can be a hallucinogen for adults, and in fact is sometimes used as a "date rape" drug. That's comforting.

So we left the hospital that night with Isabelle's first set of stitches (and hopefully her last set). I'm not sure how many stitches were underneath, but she had nine stitches on the outside. For a few days afterward, I could not stop thinking about the whole event. And I would just cringe every time that image of her falling came into my head. I kept trying to think of how I could have done things differently, and if I didn't make Dave stop to get dinner first, and if I had made Belle sit on my lap, etc, etc. I didn't sleep much because 1) Belle didn't sleep much, and 2) I kept waking up thinking about everything. It seriously haunted me. However, Belle hasn't seemed to let it affect her much, so we have just tried to move on like she has.

I was really impressed because she never picked at her stitches and was good to let us clean them and keep ointment on them. However, she did complain about her "cheek" quite often, and she did end up getting a pretty bad black eye with it. So we kept her on pain killers all week to help lessen the pain of her "cheek, cheek."

A Close-up of her stitches on the 3rd day

Last night, we took her back to the ER to get her stitches out, and she did SO well. They swaddled her in a blanket to keep her from moving. She just looked up at all of us (the tech, the nurse, Dave, and me), just kind of wondering what we were doing. She didn't really squirm too much or cry. She squirmed a little when the nurse was pulling a couple tough stitches out of the scabbed part, and she started to get a little restless toward the end. But all in all, she did really well.

The scar is definitely there, but looks pretty good considering what her cheek looked like last week. I think it will heal pretty well.

Her cheek this morning - 1 day after stitch removal. Still red and scarred, but looking good.

I realize an occurrence like this can be quite common with small kids, especially when they are as active as Belle is, but I certainly hope we never have to go through it again.